Lost Plays in Shakespeare's England / Early Modern Literature in History (PDF)

John H. Astington, University of Toronto, Canada Andrew Gurr, University of Reading, UK Michael J. Hirrel, independent scholar, USA Roslyn L. Knutson, University of Arkansas, USA Lawrence Manley, Yale University, USA Christopher Matusiak, Ithaca College, New York, USA David McInnis, University of Melbourne, Australia Christi Spain-Savage, Fordham University, USA Matthew Steggle, Sheffield Hallam University, UK Misha Teramura, Harvard University, USA Paul Whitfield White, Purdue University, USA Martin Wiggins, University of Birmingham, UK William Proctor Williams, University of Akron, USA

“The collection of thirteen essays … seeks to redress the way in which such plays are categorised, identified, and discussed in order to improve scholarly knowledge of playwrights’ and playing companies’ overall dramatic output. … this is a glorious volume that does justice to the burgeoning interest in so-called ‘lost’ plays … . This volume will serve to partner any focussed look at specific lost plays, as well as the broader catalogues and databases published in recent years.” (Natalie C. J. Aldred, SHARP News, sharpweb.org, August, 2016)

“The book represents the foundational act of a new, fertile field of inquiry as well as a veritable vade mecum for anybody wishing to work on lost plays. … Lost Plays in Shakespeare’s England marks a significant paradigm shift in early modern scholarship by defining a new field of inquiry that should be approached in high spirits … .” (Domenico Lovascio, Notes and Queries, December, 2015)

"There is a joy here in discovery of the new that pervades this lively and genuinely innovative volume. Its key value is in the theorizing of speculative methodology, but the individual contributions are an important reminder that an absence of a playbook need not mean a total absence of knowledge." Peter Kirwan, The Review of English Studies

"Lost Plays in Shakespeare's England testifies to the growing interest in this once neglected field of theatrical history While such forays may often seem individually to represent quite small and insignificant discoveries, the collective effort to identify the lost plays of early modern England is beginning significantly to reshape our view of the theatrical landscape in the age of Shakespeare, forcing a necessary revision of earlier assessments of popular taste, repertory behaviour, and dramatic composition." Ian Donaldson, Australian Book Review

"One of the pleasures of this season is Lost Plays in Shakespeare's England, edited by David McInnis and Matthew Steggle. The